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SLATINGTON — Remember what it was like as a kid playing football with the fastest kid in the neighborhood?

Now, try to imagine playing against a team that had six, seven, maybe eight players with that same kind of speed.

That’s what Valley View was up against Friday night against Imhotep Charter in the state quarterfinals at Northern Lehigh High School, and the Panthers used their speed to dominate on both sides of the ball in a 41-0 win.

“You didn’t have

anybody in your neighborhood like that. I’m going to tell you that,” Valley View coach George Howanitz said. “We were worried about their speed coming in and they exceeded our expectations of their speed.

“There’s nothing, no adjective for the type of speed that was. We hadn’t seen that all year and they took advantage of that tonight.”

Imhotep (12-1) racked up 561 yards in total offense, 473 on the ground, where the Panthers averaged almost 15 yards per carry.

Leading the way was Penn State recruit Isheem Young, who blazed for 159 yards on seven carries, and added a second touchdown with a 59-yard screen pass on the final play of the first half.

“We say sometimes it’s like tackling a ghost,” Howanitz said. “Tonight, it was like tackling a ghost. There were times I thought we had them tackled and they got through. There were times when he was running and it looked like we were standing still and he was 20 yards ahead of us.”

Complementing Young were junior Carl Jones, who carried 11 times for 149 yards and a score, and Khadarius Sampson, who scored twice and had 85 yards on three attempts.

“Tonight, they were a lot better than we were,” Howanitz said. “They were more athletic than we were and they made plays. We didn’t make a lot of plays, and if you don’t make plays against teams like this, you’re not going to have a chance to win.”

A facemask penalty against Valley View after Young’s 34-yard kickoff return put the Panthers in business at Valley View’s 31.

A bad snap over punter Kyle Cwalinski’s head led to a safety and an 8-0 lead.

Even when things went well for Valley View (10-4), Imhotep’s speed covered for its miscues, like when a Panthers player tried to make a diving catch on a punt and Jaden Duplessis recovered for Valley View at the Imhotep 49.

Senior running back Seth Vernon, who finished with 99 yards on 27 carries, spun out of a rare missed tackle to get a first down, but Imhotep stuffed the Cougars and forced a punt.

“For his last game in high school, I thought Seth ran great, put his head down and got what he could get. He at least gave us a chance during drives.”

Like so many Cougars, Vernon was surprised at the speed in person of Imhotep.

“They’re just a great team and I don’t think we were ready for what they were going to do,” Vernon said. “They didn’t look like that on film. They looked good, but they looked beatable.”

So impressive was Imhotep that after Cwalinski pinned them at their own 13 with a punt, Jones broke a 24-yard draw play on third-and-19, then followed it with a 41-yard jaunt to set up Tykee Smith’s 2-yard run for a 15-0 lead a minute into the second.

“They played for Eastern championships and state championships for a reason,” Howanitz said. “They showed that tonight.”

Sampson burned past the defense on a 69-yard TD sprint to make it 22-0, and when the Cougars gave the ball back to Imhotep with 2.4 seconds left, Young burned them on a 59-yard screen pass and sprint down the left sideline.

“I coached the Big 33 Game five years ago and he’s every bit as good as some of the guys who were playing there who are playing now on Sundays,” Howanitz said.

Sampson’s 4-yard run put the mercy rule into effect four minutes into the third quarter, and Young’s 63-yard dash capped the scoring a minute into the fourth.

It may have been a stinging finish, but not what Vernon will remember from the Cougars’ first District 2 title and state playoff appearance since 2011.

“I’m always going to remember what we did,” Vernon said. “They’re all my brothers and I’m going to remember them all and I can’t wait to see them later in life.”

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